


Moonlight

by sunnyautumnmorning



Category: Assassin's Creed III - Fandom
Genre: Angst, F/M, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 21:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5391743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnyautumnmorning/pseuds/sunnyautumnmorning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Blood does look black in the moonlight.” No matter whose it is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> Some ramble that would not go away...  
> a special thanks to my friend, woofy78 for assistance with editing

“Blood does look black in the moonlight.”

I whispered those words to him as he stood with his back leaning against a branch of an old pine tree watching in the silence, as the battle raged on the floor of the forest beneath us.

He turned to me, his face obscured by his hood and he raised one hand indicating silence, and then he pointed to the men below as they fought against each other.

Blue clashing against red, in a struggle for dominance, in a struggle for their ideals, they fought to the bitter end and no one was left standing.

I nodded and then squatted on the branch beside him, my attention diverted to the soldiers attacking in the clearing further to our left. It was a futile pursuit, yet somehow the few outnumbered the many in their spirit to win the battle against even the greatest of odds.

Once they looted bodies for ammunition and coin, they moved on.

He touched my shoulder and pointed further ahead, where two horsemen had ridden through the defenses and were engaged in a fight with a larger group of soldiers.

I turned to question him and found he was gone, leaping from branch to branch to where the two groups were fighting.

Slipping from the tree, he slid down the rise of rock and took two soldiers in red down with his hidden blades, and then leapt to a fallen tree trunk from which he catapulted himself in mid-air, and shot two more soldiers with his bow. The fifth and six went down with a bullet in their heads.

By now the two horsemen were one and he was injured, his arm bleeding badly from a bayonet wound. He wavered in the saddle and I thought he would slip from it. His wounds looked more serious than I had first thought, and my first instinct was to help.

As I slipped from my place among the branches, the soldier on the horse turned to look at me, his face pale in the moonlight. He spoke in a language that I could not place. It occurred to me that he might have thought I was an enemy seeking his death, so I raised my empty hands, hoping he could see I meant him no threat. He slid from the horse and approached me, a half smile upon his face. His one arm bleeding, he moved his other hand to his side and grasped his weapon.

I looked at him in puzzlement. Did he not understand that I meant him no harm? I spoke calmly to him, telling him that I was not his enemy, hoping he would listen. I slowly backed away, my feet bumping into a body that lay on the ground behind me. I shook my head, my voice filling with fear. I begged him to stop.

He raised his pistol and leveled it at my chest, and I closed my eyes to wait for the impact of the bullet that surely would take my life.

But there was no sound, no flash and no puff of smoke. I opened one eye to see Ratonhnhaké:ton standing behind him with a look of anger on his face.

The blade flashed in the light, and then black saturated his uniform and the ground as the soldier slumped forward. I stared in shock, my first time witnessing and not believing my eyes that he, of all people, could take a life that easily and that quickly.

“He was going to shoot you. What were you thinking?” Ratonhnhaké:ton said matter-of-factly.

I struggled with what I had just seen; my stomach turned, having already seen my fill of blood and death – and now this. I turned as my stomach heaved, and what little meal I had hours before erupted from me. I sank to my knees shaking; my mistake could have cost me my life – perhaps even Ratonhnhaké:ton’s.

It did not matter who won this battle; what happened was of no direct consequence to us. His fight was further ahead; the target waiting with baited breath for death to come on swift feet, to take from him what he so valued - his life.

It was as his father was; Haytham Kenway. I may have known him for only a brief time, during my time in New York, but it seemed he too had lost his humanity, giving into the viciousness that came from what he saw, and what he did.

I focused back on Ratonhnhaké:ton, gone was the young man that I had first come to know in the few months from when he had rescued me in New York, who had brought me to the Homestead where I had forged a life; where I had made a home, found friendship and perhaps even a family, and where I had begun to train in the ways of an Assassin.

It was at his insistence that I learn to defend myself should the need ever arise, especially if he was not there to protect me. I presumed he saw himself in the position of protector towards me and to be honest, a part of me did not mind.

What else he thought, he did not speak of to me. His silence was not a wall between us; it was just his way of dealing with life. He had seen many battles here, on the land and on the open sea. He had participated in the taking of lives, of the spilling of blood, but never once did he enjoy it. He did not revel in it, nor raise a mug in a victory.

Ratonhnhaké:ton was a seasoned warrior, a man driven by his main ideal that all deserved freedom. He had fought hard, lost plenty and his soul was stained with what he had seen and done. That was what had initially drawn me to him; his original ideals that all deserved freedom, and I supposed he still held onto those, even now.

I rose from my position and turned to look at him in the moonlight that now slung itself over his shoulder and I nodded and smiled weakly.

I could offer no words to my mistake, only hope that I could do better.

Ratonhnhaké:ton lifted his head and looked around. “You should go home. I will take care of this.”

My heart dropped, I knew he was angry with me but he would not tell me in so many words.

I hated to disappoint him; it was not what I wanted at all. I nodded to him and climbed the closest tree and began my return to our encampment to saddle my horse and return home.

~~*~~

Three weeks later, Ratonhnhaké:ton returned, bruised and bloody from the battle that he had waged. He moved slowly past me at the front door and up to his room, not speaking a word to me or even offering me a sideways glance.

I had hoped that his mood might have mellowed since leaving him in the forest, but I guessed it had not.

I returned to the study and resumed with the book that I had been reading but the words kept drifting together the longer I sat.

It was becoming unbearable, the feeling in me that I was awaiting his decree of punishment for my crime.

I stood letting the book fall unheeded to the floor and moved to the bottom of the stairs and called up to Ratonhnhaké:ton.

“If you won’t speak to me, then I will leave since I have disappointed you so much.”

I moved up the stairs to my room and grabbed my already packed satchel.

Still no response came from him.

Well, damn him then!

I moved down the stairs, tears burning behind my eyes. I would not give in to them or to him.

I saddled my horse and then mounted him directing him to the path to lead me to New York. I would go home, back to the life I had once held, not that that would be a better situation to what I faced here.

I would try to forget about the man that I had met and I would forget about becoming an Assassin. But I knew I could not forget about him, never.

My horse shied and stopped suddenly causing me to almost fall from the saddle. I kicked my heels into his side and yanked on the reins, urging him on but the damnable beast would not move.

“What is your problem?” I asked him as I tried to get him to move.

“He will not leave.” Ratonhnhaké:ton stood behind me.

“Oh, so he speaks now does he? Well too late, I am leaving.”

I returned to urging the horse on but instead of moving forward, the beast turned around and headed back towards the stable.

“You infuriating beast!” I shouted at it, and perhaps at Ratonhnhaké:ton too.

I dismounted and began to walk.

An arm grabbed me from behind and I took action. I swung around and planted a fist on the chin of my attacker, in this case, Ratonhnhaké:ton.

He staggered back and smiled.

I lunged at him, fighting him with my fury and anger. I shouted at him until I was hoarse and I could no longer lift my arms. I fell to the ground, curled up in a ball and cried.

Ratonhnhaké:ton stood for a few moments than sat beside me, going between stroking my hair and patting my back like some parent would do to comfort their child. I stopped after a few minutes, sitting up, wiping my face with the sleeve of my coat.

“Are you mad with me still?” I inquired of him, not daring to look into his face.

“No.”

“Are you disappointed in me that I am not a good student?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

“No.”

I sighed. He was not very forthright in telling me what he wanted. I hated his one word answers and he knew that.

“How about you tell me what you want me to do and I will do it?”

“No.”

I threw my hands up in the air and stared at him and noticed the small smile, tugging at the side of his mouth.

“You know you are impossible, right?”

“No.”

I fell back, lying on the ground, looking up at the stars overhead and sighed.

Ratonhnhaké:ton moved closer and joined me, looking at the stars.

We stayed that way for a long time, neither of us speaking.

“Blood does look black in the moonlight.” He said after a while. “His blood did not look any different than any of the others that I killed.”

I winced at his words, knowing how hard it must have been for him. My heart ached for him, but also in part for the man that he was forced to kill.

“I am sorry for what you had to do,” I paused for a moment thinking, then offered, "I am sorry for how I have behaved."

"Hmph."

We sat there for how long, I did not know, just out under the moonlight.


End file.
